This invention relates to a dispenser for wine, and more particularly to a dispenser which permits a bottle of wine to be opened and served in individual portions over an extended period of time without subjecting the remaining wine in the bottle to the adverse effects of air.
Wine spoils when the oxygen in the ambient air reacts with it. Noticeable spoilage usually happens within a day or two, even if the wine is resealed and/or refrigerated. Fine wines often will noticeably deteriorate within hours. The spoilage is due to the oxidation process and aerobic microorganismic action of the wine interacting with ambient air and results in a musty odor, flat flavor, discoloration and acidification of the wine. Even slight contact between the wine and ambient air will begin the oxidation process.
The prior art has taken three basic approaches to protecting uncorked wine from contact harmful oxygen: blanketing with nitrogen, vacuuming the air out of a partially dispensed bottle, or physically barring air from contacting the wine. However, the fundamental limitation with each of these approaches is that the bottle of wine is uncorked. This process alone begins the wine's deterioration through the initial wine contact with air when the cork is removed. Enough oxygen instantaneously reacts with the wine to start degradation. No blanketing or vacuuming arrangement can remedy this state once the cork has been pulled. The best of the devices using one of the above approaches can only extend the wine's life to a maximum of three weeks.
The prior art shows several patents which attempt to solve this problem by inserting an inert gas through the cork and extracting the wine without removing the cork. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,883,043 and 4,011,971. Both of these patents disclose devices having a hollow needle or thin tube which is inserted through the bottle cork into the interior of the bottle through which wine can be withdrawn from the bottle and through which an inert gas can be directed into the space above the surface of the wine. The fundamental limitation of these two patents and similar type devices is that the very insertion of the needles and/or tubes through the cork introduces air, i.e., the ambient air in the needle and/or tube itself. Although small in amount, the air stored therein is enough to begin oxidation and limit the outer time limit before the wine noticeably deteriorates, generally approximately three weeks. A second serious limitation of these type devices is that even a small needle-sized opening will become clogged with cork particles as the needle or tube passes through the cork. Thus, a viable wine dispenser of this type will at least require a completely closed, insertion surface.